NEW YORK CITY: Vineyard Theatre has named Kate Tarker the recipient of the 2017 Paula Vogel Playwriting Award. The award is named in honor of the playwright and teacher whose plays Indecent, How I Learned to Drive, and The Long Christmas Ride Home all premiered at the Vineyard. The award is given each year to an emerging writer of exceptional promise. Tarker will receive artistic development support in addition to a cash prize, which will be presented at a ceremony in June.

Tarker’s play Laura and the Sea was included on the 2016 Kilroys List, was an L. Arnold Weissberger Award finalist, and a finalist for the 2016 Princess Grace Award. The play was presented this past fall at the Vineyard’s members-only reading series. Her other plays include Thunderbodies and An Almanac for Farmers and Lovers in Mexico. Her works have been developed at the Lark, Ars Nova, New York Theater Workshop, and the O’Neill, among others. She is the recipient of a Jerome Fellowship and the National Science Playwriting Award. Tarker has completed residencies at MacDowell Colony, Tofte Lake Center, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. She is currently a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, a New Georges affiliated artist, and a Playwrights’ Center core writer. She has commissions from the Wilma and Theater Masters, and collaborations with both Pig Iron and SITI Company. She holds a MFA from Yale School of Drama.